Hebrew
Hebrew is the designation for things pertaining to and his descendants. Taken from the word "_ABaR," the word means "those from across the way." It would come to be used of only the people and language of . However, it had been used to describe the early of Israel that founded the ethnicity. All the . up to near the time of the exile was consistently in Hebrew. Portions of the later prophets were written in a dialect of Aramaean which had become the language of the empire and adopted by the . Ethnicity first used the full term "Hebrew" when to when setting him apart from the inhabitants of . This established a use of the term as a separate ethnicity↑ . On the other hand, , an , called a "Hebrew," which means "across the way," Gen 39:14, 17 knowing that the slave had originated from which was across the Sinai desert from the fertile Nile valley. Joseph himself even referred to his homeland as "Hebrew" Gen 40:15, and the servants of the Pharaoh of Joseph's time called Joseph a Hebrew Gen 41:12, 43:32 for the same reason. At the beginning of the , 80 years before the Exodus occurred, the Egyptian government classified people being descendants of as Hebrews Exo 1:15,16,19. Eventually the at the time became fearful that the Hebrew people would multiply Exo 1:9 and join their enemies Exo 1:10 in case of war. As the Pharaoh became fearful of the potential threat the Hebrews presented, he began increasing their workload Exo 1:11. When that backfired by causing a baby boom, attempted a program of genocide by killing all of the Hebrew baby boys Exo 1:22. So all Hebrews prior to were not considered Israelites, but all Hebrews afterwards were Israelites and no non-Israelites were ever called Hebrew. Only those who were Israelite would be Hebrew, even if an ethnicity was also from Canaan, as the Israelite population was the only major ethnic group in Egypt that originated in Canaan across the way. Language Like all languages after the dispersion from , the Hebrew language seem to have developed over time. However, since the term "sons of " is used of descendants from , it is reasonable to assume that 's favored line held the kernel of what would become "Hebrew." Much is made of what God called things during the creation week, as told to, and then by, Moses. From this one might gather that the language predated the designation "Hebrew" by thousands of years. The Sons of Eber The original language of this apparently unbroken family might indicate that nothing changed in the line of Shem that goes through to Abraham. When Abraham encountered Gen. 14:18-20, priest of the Most High God, there does not seem to have been a communication problem. If this priest-king was indeed Shem, then "Hebrew" would be the language of "the sons of Eber" (also spelled Heber) of whom the patriarch was the progenitor. Whether Heber's nephews (sons of Joktan) spoke his language after Babel is unknown. Designated a "Hebrew," Abraham spoke a distinct language among the as he lived thereGen 14:13. This language would be shared during his life to his eight sons and numerous grandsons. In the Messianic line, this would be and Jacob, leaving us with the "God of the fathers" speaking their language Exo 3:15. Easy communication seems to have been common in Canaan, but down in , a bilingual Hebrew Joseph used an interpreter to speak to his brothers Gen. 42:23. About 320 years later, Moses the "Egyptian" Exo 2:19 had learned the Hebrew language on his 's lap Exo 2:9-10. When he was over 80 he was writing down the text in the in the "Hebrew" language with some Aramaean and Egyptian loanwords thrown in Exod 17:14. This is understandable since Abraham's in-laws in Haran were Aramaean. Some names in the lists in Genesis have "foreign derivation," indicating a faithful rendering of names taken from lists made available to Moses. The was written in Hebrew and the dialogue of , , , Zophar, is Hebrew. All of these people inhabited the and the book's events may have been concurrent to or shortly predated Abraham. Hebrew may have stemmed from Shem's ancestors and passed on to Aram and then Uz, with it also passing through Uz's nephew Eber. Sooner or later the Hebrew of Aram would have had to die as Aram's descendants lead to the language of Aramaic, not Hebrew. Semitic Languages The descendants of Shem ended up with similar languages. This is discernable in the use of Aramaic in the Old Testament. The Arameans, being descendants of Shem's son Aram (also spelled Ram). Abraham's kin were an Aramean (translated "Syrian") Genesis 25:20, though they were not technically descended from Aram (they were distant cousins, from ) Genesis 10:22. When Moses gave instructions concerning offerings of thanksgiving upon entering the promised land, he tells the people to recall that Israel had gone down into Egypt as an Aramaean, thus equating "Hebrew" with the ancient land from which Abraham had come Deuteronomy 26:5. The Aramaic language was closely related to that learned in Ur. Abram spoke a Semitic language that probably changed slightly in the four centuries before Moses was born. The "original" Abrahamic language had become the Hebrew of the Bible. By the time of the Exile, over 800 years after Moses, the languages had changed so much that the people could not easily distinguish them 2 Kings 18:26; Isaiah 36:11. As time went on, Aramaic would replace Hebrew as the language of the Jewish people. The "Hebrew tongue" of the New Testament was a dialect of Aramaic with Biblical Hebrew being reserved for the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees and the other Bible scholars of the day. Verses